Mrs. Wishy Washy Unit & Lapbook

We just finished our Mrs. Wishy Washy unit! We had such a good time with it. We did all the activities that I created which are posted at www.homeschoolshare.com/mrs_wishy_washy.php. My boys really enjoyed fingerpainting the pig with "mud" (chocolate pudding) and then fingerpainting another pig with shaving cream. I made a flannelgraph set for retelling the story from this website - http://www.makinglearningfun.com/themepages/MrsWishyFeltBoardSet.htm . This was a big hit! That is the same website where the bubble counting cards and story sequence cards came from. There was a ton of possibilities on that website. I got the "Counting Animals" book from www.enchantedlearning.com . To culminate our study we visited Green Meadow farms. This was a great unit for my boys who are 3 1/2 and 4 1/2. Thanks for taking a look!!!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

My Blue Boat Lapbook

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

We recently spent two weeks on "My Blue Boat" by Chris Demarest which is a book in the Before Five in a Row curriculm. The book is currently out-of-print but many library systems have it available for checkout. It was a fun unit which my boys really enjoyed. We used many components for our lapbook from here: www.homeschoolshare.com/b4_resources_my_blue_boat.php. I tied in several Bible stories that have boats in them like Jesus calming the Storm & Noah's Ark. We also used our new Do-a-Dots to dot the "W is for Whale" page from here: www.makinglearningfun.com/t.asp?b=m&t=http://www.makinglearningfun.com/Activities/ocean/OceanWhaleMagnet.gif . We made boats from here:http://jas.familyfun.go.com/arts-and-crafts?page=CraftDisplay&craftid=11996 and floated them in the bathtub. As a surpise, I purchased the boys their own wooden boats from Magic Cabin - http://magiccabin.com/magiccabin/product.do?section_id=0&bc=1004&pgc=549&cmvalue=MCD0Normal%20Search%20ResultP1. The boys were so excited about the boats especially when they found out that we would be visiting Aunt Tammy at her beach house the next week. This was a wonderful way to culminate "My Blue Boat"!!!

Lion's Paw by Robb White

I am so THRILLED to announce that "The Lion's Paw" by Robb White has finally been reprinted!!! I just got my very own copy after many months of vainly seeking an affordable copy of the then out-of-print book. I am currently working on a unit/lapbook for the book which should be posted on homeschoolshare.com. I will let you know when it is completed. This is a must read-aloud for any Florida family (although non-FLoridian children will also love it). :)

Jesse Bear What Will You Wear

We spent last week reading "Jesse Bear What Will You Wear" and making a lapbook to go-along with it. Most of the components of the lapbook came from here -http://www.homeschoolshare.com/b4_resources_jesse_bear.php . The boys loved the felt bears that I made for them. I traced this bear pattern http://www.first-school.ws/t/craft/bear_xmas1bw.htm on a cereal box and then glued the felt on to make the body. Then I got out a bunch of fabric scraps and they chose clothes for their bears. We attached the clothes to the bears using velcro so that they could change out the outfits. I also added a component to my lapbook of rhyming words from the book because Eli & Max are really into "What Rhymes". I chose several pairs of rhyming words from the book and put them on cards with a matching picture. Then we said the words and decided what went together. This was a big hit!!! You can see pictures of the lapbook & dress-up bears below.

Jenny's Suprise Summer Lapbook

We spent the last 2 weeks doing Before Five in Row's "Jenny's Suprise Summer" lapbook. This was a great book and a perfect preschool lapbook!!! It is out of print so if your library doesn't have it you can request it through an interlibrary loan. I bought mine off of Ebay. It was not originally in my September plans but several weeks ago my mom and I both went searching for kittens at the local humane societies. Eli, Max, and I choose a classic orange tabby and named him Baxter after much debate. We also considered the names Garfield, Marmalade, Tigger, and Pumpkin. He is a considered a classic because he has bullseyes on both of his sides as part of his striping. You can see a slideshow of him here - http://wordoftruthboysacademy.blogspot.com/2008/09/introducing-our-new-kitty-baxter.html . With that context, it made perfect sense to scratch my original plans to do "My Blue Boat" and go with this instead. Most of the lapbook components were taken from homeschoolshare.com and I added a few more which are now also on the homeschoolshare website. You can find a direct link to all the components here - http://www.homeschoolshare.com/b4_resources_jenny.php. I like to use the boys' art work for my cover and back page. I used Eli's cat for the front and Max's cat for the back. These were two additional art project we did to go along with the lapbook. As luck would have it, I also found the book "Cats and Kittens", an Usborne First Pets book, for five cents at a local thrift shop. It went perfect with the unit and had a great idea to make homemade kitten toys out of felt and catnip. The boys had fun with this and so did our kitty! We also used Scholastic's First Discovery Book "Cats". This was a fun lapbook and so relevant to our lives! I am so glad I didn't rigidly stick to my schedule!!!

Books for Reluctant Boy Readers!

I recently heard about a four year old boy who doesn't like to read neither having books read to him nor looking at books. The mom was asking what she could do to encourage him toward reading. It got me thinking!!! First of all, the Lord convicted me about my grumpy attitude lately. My boys love books and have the tendency to empty the shelves as they "read" on a regular basis. They are not very good at putting the books back so guess who gets to do so- MOM!!! Well, I guess I shouldn't complain about this "problem"!!! I have found in my teaching career and with my sons that boys love non-fiction books. We have almost all of the Scholastic First Discovery books and my boys read them on a daily basis. There are topics such as Bears, Bees, Boats, Butterflies, Cars and Trucks, Castles, Cats, Colors, Construction, Eggs, Endangered Animals, Fish, Flowers, Human Body, Lions, Musical Instruments, Night Creatures, Rain Forest, Tools, Trains, Turtles and Snails, Weather and Whales (and much more). These were also a hit when my Sophmore in college was their age. Although we frequent the library weekly, I think it is important for there to be a large variety of books in the home that can be revisited again and again. I find many books inexpensively at local thrift shops. Another source of books that I absolutely love is paperbackswap.com. I have acquired many of my First Discovery Books on that site. With paperbackswap, you post books on the site that you would like to trade. When someone chooses your book, you mail it at your expense using the media mail rate. It usually ends up being about $2.30. When they recieve the book, you earn a credit and can then choose any book on the site. It will be mailed to you for free. I can't say enough good things about this site!!! I have acquired some very expensive books from this site!!! The key is to interest boys with a wide variety of books, especially non-ficiton, and offer many opportunities for enjoying the books. I have children's books in just about every room in the house!!!